Going Crazy on Testing Viscosity Limits for Three Roll Mills

The most exciting thing for our lab staff is to keep doing crazy tests and constantly improving. Knowing the limits of our machine helps us understand and serve our customers' needs better.

Theoretically three roll mills in the market are able to handle materials with viscosity ranging from 200cP to 1,000,000cP. According to a customer's request, we tested a material with 479cP ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDD7g2iZqoU ). The fluid danced happily on the rollers and was scraped off by the doctor blade without an incident.

Motivated by strong curiosity, we decided to try linseed oil with 55cP (at 20 ° c) on our three roll mill to see how it works. We adjusted the end plates and set the gap size around 25 microns before processing. Unexpectedly, the linseed oil ran smoothly over the rollers without dropping down to the tray underneath. After the sucess, we abandoned all of our concerns and came up with an extreme idea. We adjusted the gap of triple rollers even smaller and then fed WATER into it. And…the water reached the discharge apron magically! We could not restrain from cheering for this equipment’s precise design!

For high-viscosity material tests, we have had complete success with Ketchup (50,000cP) and Petroleum Jelly (64,000cP). For even higher viscosity, we had a great experience with one of our clients delicious chocolate hazelnut paste. We’ve tested 3 samples of the chocolate pastes, with the most viscous one over 500,000cP. Next step, we are going to put lard, which is 2,000,000cP in viscosity, through our machine. Keep tuned for upcoming lab tests and exciting results!